Arrest points to honey oil trend

Derivative of marijuana can be explosive

FALLBROOK  A man suspected of manufacturing a potentially explosive derivative of marijuana called honey oil was arrested Friday morning in Fallbrook.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Montion said in a statement that deputies had received complaints from people in the community about drug activity at a home on Secret Lake Lane east of the Fallbrook Golf Club. While investigating, deputies stopped a car driven by one man associated with the house about 10 a.m.

Inside his vehicle deputies found a small amount of marijuana and hash butter, which is made by heating marijuana and butter or some other type of fat which is then eaten.

A search of the house led to the discovery of a number of marijuana plants being grown in three separate rooms. They also found evidence that Marc Lockwood, 37, had been making hash butter and honey oil, which is made using propane or a butane to break down marijuana into a concentrated liquid, which is then smoked.

“This is a highly explosive and dangerous process akin to manufacturing methamphetamine,” Montion said in the statement.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency earlier this month issued a bulletin about the rise in honey oil or hash oil explosions in houses and motel rooms across the United States. They cautioned law enforcement agencies to be aware of the new trend. Often, the agency said, honey oil explosions are confused with pipe-bomb blasts or methamphetamine manufacturing explosions.

Lockwood was arrested and booked into the Vista Detention Facility on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale and cultivation and manufacturing controlled substances.